Pittsburgh Theological Journal 2014

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premiums of their healthcare.” 7 Roughly 90 years after the pro-union stance by Niebuhr and a remnant of Detroit clergy, a remnant of Pittsburgh clergy saw the need for what continues to be a risky and unpopular stance. Even where cities and neighborhoods have begun to reverse the outward flow of resources and population, the poor are still losing out as a result of displacement by corporate sector development agendas and by gentrification. As corporations and wealthier residents move into what had become impoverished urban core neighborhoods, low-income residents may end up dispersed to even poorer central city neighborhoods or to outer ring neighborhoods where they become cut off from social networks upon which they had come to depend. This was seen in mid-20th century Pittsburgh’s decision to build a civic center in its downtown area, acquiring a significant portion of the historic African American Hill neighborhood through eminent domain in order to do so. The encroachment upon the Hill District neighborhood resulted in the displacement of 8,000 residents and 400 businesses from the Hill neighborhood while providing little compensation to the displaced in the process. Many of the more than 1,800 displaced black families ended up dispersed across town to lowincome housing largely in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood. By the 1980s and 1990s, the East Liberty neighborhood would itself become a target of major corporate speculation and development, displacing many of the low-income black residents that had concentrated in that neighborhood, pushing them out into the even poorer adjacent neighborhood of Homewood. Whether or not the arrival of corporations in urban neighborhoods is objected to by local leaders or residents for its displacement effects, it may be viewed as imposing its will on communities in other ways that overrule or undermine stated or agreed-upon local community development objectives or policy priorities. An interesting example of this took place recently in Washington, D.C., where local leaders pushed back against an agreement between Wal-Mart and the city government for Wal-Mart to introduce six stores into the District. Although there was general support (if not enthusiasm) for Wal-Mart’s soon-to-come presence in the District, a number of local leaders felt Wal-Mart had the capacity and the obligation to pay livable wages to the workers in these new locations, and City Council leaders approved a bill requiring retailers with corporate sales of $1 billion or more and operating in spaces 75,000 square feet or larger to pay persons working in their District stores a minimum of $12.50 an hour rather than the official local minimum of $8.25 an hour. In response, Wal-Mart indicated that if the bill was signed into 7 See, Ann Belser, “Union sees national focus in UPMC organizing effort,” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 9, 2014); R. Zullo and M. Balingit, “Hundreds protest UPMC over wages for service employees,” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 3, 2014); Dave Jamieson, “Pittsburgh largest employer draws hundreds of protesters over ‘poverty’ wages,” (Huffington Post, March 3, 2014); and Alyssa Marsico, “10 clergy members arrested during UPMC protest,” (KDKA News, February 27, 2014).


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